Dr. Dolores Spikes, former SU System president, dies

8th June 2015   ·   0 Comments

Educator called a ‘trailblazer’ and a ‘giant’

Southern University students, faculty, administrators and alumni joined elected officials and Louisianians from all walks of life last week in pausing to remember Dr. Dolores Spikes, the first woman to lead a public institution of higher learning in Louisiana and the first woman in the U.S. to serve as president of a university system. Dr. Spikes died June 1 at the age of 78.

The Louisiana House paused for a moment of silence at the State Capitol to remember the dedicated education leader and pioneering administrator for whom the Dolores Margaret Richard Spikes Honors College on the Southern University-Baton Rouge campus is named.

As news spread throughout the Jaguar Nation, the Southern Univ­ersity family and others showered Spikes with accolades and praised the trailblazing educator and administrator for her commitment to fulfilling the historical mission of HBCUs.

“Dr. Dolores Margaret Richard Spikes was a shining star among the leaders of Southern University. She brought national acclaim to the university as she guided the Baton Rouge campus and the system through some of its most challenging times,” Flandus McClinton Jr., acting Southern University Baton Rouge chancellor, said in a statement last week. “She was beloved and respected by faculty, staff, students and alumni during her tenure. She will be missed, but her legacy will live on. Southern University has truly lost a giant.”

“She left an indelible legacy as a remarkable educator and leader of our time,” Southern University at New Orleans Chancellor Dr. Victor Ukpolo said. “Dr. Spikes truly will be missed.”

“We are profoundly saddened by the news of President Emeritus Dolores Spikes’ death,” outgoing Southern University System president Ronald Mason said in a prepared statement. “She was a devout daughter of Southern University who became a trailblazing giant in higher education in Louisiana and the nation.”

“I am deeply saddened by the news of Dr. Dolores Spikes’ passing. Her brilliance was only matched by her zeal for improving the access and impact of education for a diverse array of students,” U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., said in a statement Monday. “Her contributions to higher education in Louisiana and throughout the country cannot be overstated. She blazed a trail and built a legacy that will live on for generations to come. My heartfelt sympathies and prayers are with her family and loved ones.”

Dr. Dolores Spikes, the daughter of Margaret and Lawrence Richard, was born on August 24, 1936 in Baton Rouge, La.

She credited her parents as the single-greatest influence on her life. “My father had a fourth-grade education, but he loved to read. He loved education so much that even after his daughters finished college, he went back to get his GED,” she told The Oval Message. Her mother, who had a tenth-grade education, had a similar attitude. “We never talked about whether we were going to college. We always knew we were going, even though my parents didn’t know where the money was coming from,” Spikes recalled.

After being educated in Baton Rouge’s parochial and public schools, she enrolled at Southern University in 1954. On “The Bluff” at Southern, she earned a B.S. in Mathematics with summa cum laude honors, joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and met her future husband, fellow mathematics major Herman Spikes, in a world literature class. The relationship blossomed and continued to grow after she left Baton Rouge to pursue her graduate studies.

Dr. Spikes went on to earn a M.S. in Mathematics from the Univ­ersity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also developed a passion for teaching and decided to invest in Black America by teaching at a historically Black institution of higher learning.

“While I was away in graduate school at the University of Illinois, Hermon sent me a ring in the mail. We married two weeks after I received the master’s degree,” Spikes told The Oval Message. The couple had one daughter, Rhonda, who later became a fellow Southern University alum.

In 1958 Spikes returned to Louisiana and accepted a teaching position at Mossville High School in Calcasieu Parish, where she helped to dramatically improve the school’s academic ratings by introducing independent study programs. Three years later, she returned to her alma mater, accepting a position as an assistant mathematics professor at Southern.

In 1971, she made history by becoming the first African Ameri­can to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Louisiana State University.

Spikes served as assistant to the chancellor of Southern University-Baton Rouge from 1982 to 1985.

She later served as chancellor of Southern University-Baton Rouge and Southern University at New Orleans (July 1987 to December 1988).

In 1988 Spikes was appointed president of the Southern Univ­ersity System.

Spikes never took for granted the role Southern played in her future success or the institution’s historical mission. “Southern (Univ­ersity) represents hope,” she was quoted as saying in Black Women in America. “It represents a way to open the doors of America to countless young people who would otherwise be shut out.”

In 1987, a year before she accepted the SU System president post, Spikes was appointed a board member of Harvard University’s Institute of Educational Manage­ment.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton tapped Spikes to serve on his administration’s board of advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

In 1996, Spikes was appointed to serve as vice chairwoman of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant universities.

Southern also honored Spikes by naming her the Southern Univ­ersity System President Emeritus.

She later served as president of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland from 1997 until 2001.

Afro.com reported that prior to stepping down for health reasons she shared her thoughts about the university’s challenges with UMES Magazine. “Whoever succeeds me must have the tenacity to keep it going,” she said. “We can only stop when…people are convinced that they have not ever done right by this institution.”

The University of Maryland-Eastern Shore issued a statement after Spikes’ death, saying “she laid the ground work for the institution to evolve into the 21st-century Black institution it has become.

“She will be remembered at this university as a leader who drew on the wisdom and experience she gained as the president of her alma matter, Southern University, and the grace that comes with being a native of the South.”

Spikes was the recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Educational Achievement Award and was recognized by Ebony magazine as one of its “Most Influential Black Women in America.”

In 2012, Spikes was inducted into the Louisiana State University Hall of Distinction. SUNO recently created the Dolores Margaret Richard Spikes Endowed Pro­fessor of Business Entrepreneur­ship, which is currently held by Dr. Frank Martin, professor and chair of Business Administration.

Dr. Spikes was preceded in death by her husband, Herman Spikes, who died in 2008, and her daughter, Rhonda Brown, who passed away in 2010.

Funeral arrangements were still pending at press time.

This article originally published in the June 8, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.